When Dr. Moses Rodriguez started researching multiple sclerosis two
decades ago, the prevailing wisdom was that repairing the nervous system
was impossible.

Now he knows that's not true.

Rodriguez, a professor of neurology and immunology at the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minn., was intrigued by MS patients who had devastating attacks
and then, one year later, seemed to be dramatically better.

"We hadn't done anything," he says. "The body had been able to do something
to induce repair."

In the intervening years, Rodriguez has been able to identify a whole
series of antibodies that were able to perform dramatic repairs in animal
tests of MS. "We have been able to show definitely that we can get very
significant repair of the nervous system," he says.

These antibodies are part of the body's natural defense system. "They
are present in all of us and are playing a role in repairing our bodies,"
Rodriguez explains. In people with MS, however, they are present at only
low levels.

"It's very exciting, because theoretically it should be very nontoxic,"
Rodriguez says. "You're giving back. It's a normal, very natural, reparative
kind of approach. Most approaches in MS have been destructive. People are
trying to get rid of T cells or immunosuppress people or take away things."

Now Rodriguez and his colleagues have identified antibodies in humans
and have unraveled the complete molecular sequence, meaning they can manufacture
them. In fact, Rodriguez is planning clinical trials in collaboration with
Acorda Therapeutics. "The company is committed to taking this forward;
I think it's going to happen relatively soon," Rodriguez says.

Rodriguez has departed from conventional MS research in another way
as well. Traditionally, experts have focused on the myelin sheath, which
insulates the axon or nerve cell. "What we're finding is the real problem
is in the neuron or axon, not the myelin," Rodriguez says. "We may be concentrating
on the wrong thing. Once we get over that big step, we may be able to find
more effective therapies."

Without myelin, the axon is like "a tree without bark," Rodriguez explains.
"All of a sudden, anything can get into it and the axon is going to die.
One of the things you've got to do is protect those axons from dying."

Killer T-cells, which are part of the body's immune system and the most
common T cells in the brains of MS patients, appear to be killing the axons.
When Rodriguez and his colleagues deleted killer T-cells in animal models,
the animals showed no neurological problems.

"That shows that killer T cells are the bad guys," he says. "If we can
get rid of killer T-cells, we can do a lot."